Nearly two decades later, the wounds of Hurricane Katrina still run deep. Spike Lee’s latest docuseries on Netflix revisits the catastrophic storm, not just through the eyes of survivors, but by unearthing the governmental blunders that made a disaster even worse. Are we truly learning from history, or are past mistakes doomed to repeat?

Spike Lee’s compelling three-part docuseries, “Katrina: Come Hell and High Water,” offers a profound and necessary re-examination of one of America’s most devastating natural and man-made disasters. With Lee serving as an executive producer and director of the pivotal third episode, alongside EPs Geeta Gandbhir and Samantha Knowles directing the initial installments, the series meticulously stitches together survivor stories with a critical look at the systemic failures that exacerbated the tragedy, making it a crucial watch for understanding disaster preparedness and governmental accountability.

The series plunges viewers back into the harrowing events of August 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina made landfall, unleashing its fury upon New Orleans. While the storm itself was a formidable force, it was the subsequent and catastrophic failure of the city’s levee system that truly sealed the fate of countless residents, particularly those in the historically vulnerable Lower 9th Ward, leading to widespread flooding and the tragic loss of over 1,500 lives across Louisiana.

Beyond chronicling the immediate devastation and the enduring resilience of its New Orleans survivors, the docuseries fearlessly dissects the layers of governmental neglect and misjudgment. It meticulously details how failures at the city, state, and federal levels compounded the impact of the historic storm, turning a severe weather event into an unprecedented human catastrophe that could, to a significant extent, have been prevented.

Through incisive interviews with key figures such as then Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu and former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, the narrative gains a sharp political edge. These firsthand accounts, coupled with expert analyses from journalists and policy specialists, paint a stark picture of how much of the storm’s devastating impact was not only anticipated but could have been mitigated with greater foresight and attention from all levels of government in the years preceding the disaster.

A significant segment of the docuseries focuses on the antiquated infrastructure that proved fatally inadequate. The federally constructed levee and pump system, largely unchanged since its early 20th-century inception, was simply not designed to withstand the forces of a world increasingly shaped by climate change. This critical lack of modernization emerges as a central theme, highlighting a profound governmental oversight.

The residents of low-lying neighborhoods, including the Lower 9th Ward, lived with a haunting awareness of past floods, notably Hurricane Betsy four decades prior to Katrina. Their collective memory and understanding of vulnerability underscored the deep-seated fears that became a tragic reality when the levees dramatically failed the morning after the storm, leading to the worst of the flooding and deepening the calls for governmental accountability.

For acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee, this project represents a poignant return to a subject he previously tackled in his 2006 documentary, “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.” While that earlier work focused on the immediate aftermath and its disproportionate impact on poor Black communities in New Orleans, this new Netflix docuseries revisits the storm nearly two decades later, offering a reflective and personal perspective from those who endured its wrath.

“Katrina: Come Hell and High Water” manages to strip away the familiarity of historical news footage, bringing the storm and its aftermath down to a deeply personal and visceral level. The testimonies of survivors, combined with the unflinching exposé of systemic failures, make the horrors of what transpired feel freshly immediate, underscoring the vital human cost of institutional neglect.

Ultimately, this powerful Spike Lee production serves as more than just a recounting of a past disaster; it stands as a stark reminder of the critical importance of robust disaster preparedness, adaptable infrastructure, and transparent governmental accountability. By exploring both the human suffering and the preventable mistakes, the docuseries compels viewers to confront uncomfortable truths about justice and resilience in the face of profound adversity.